BTW, my girl says a graphing calculator would have helped her a great deal on the ACT. You might think about getting one of them and figuring out how to use it. It's pricey around $100.00 but a good ACT score and GPA, can get you anywhere from $5000. up in scholarship money!

horse_rider1990 wrote:I was wondering if anyone could explain where I can learn how to use a scientific calculator? I can do math on paper just fine, but I can't on a calculator.

And I will be taking the test the first of the year, in preparation for college (I'm in my Senior year).

Thanks in advance, horse_rider1990

I used a TI-83 when I took the SAT. Frankly you don't really need any of its scientific functions to ace the math section. The only thing nice about it over a basic calculator is a record of your work on the screen, so that you can quickly double-check for typos

A graphing calculator is no doubt nice for solving problems in real-life, but unnecessary for doing coursework. You'll learn the math better if you do it by hand, which means sticking with the basic trig / mathematical functions.

I went up through Calc III without ever using a graphing calculator. Scored quite well, too

The point is that a calculator is an artificial prop. If you're doing your math on a calculator, you're not learning to do it by hand. Given, it can be useful to check your answers on a calculator, but it becomes a big temptation to rely on the calculator rather than your brain, resulting in not actually learning the math as well. This goes double for people whose talents lie in areas other than math.